Medical Professionals everywhere are agreeing that the new Wii title Mario Strikers-Charged can be unhealthy for you. While most players are able to keep their cool while competing against other gamers around the world via the WiFi connection; a small percentage, approx. 94%, have a greatly increased chance of undergoing a full body mutation, altered mind state and as a result scrambling into the woods naked to howl at the moon.

I anticipated this game being a lot of fun to play but never realized that it could actually result in my death if played for long periods of time, about 15 minutes. But seriously I would say this game combines aspects of hockey games and soccer games into a new fast paced hybrid that can leave players breathlessly wiping off their sweaty palms after matches.



There are a few things I don't like about this game however. Megashots are attacks that allow the possibility to score up to six goals at once and, depending on your timing, can be kicked toward the goal at a blisteringly high rate of speed. While you're given the chance to stop these attacks in a neat Goally POV mode most of the time a megashot attempt results in at least one goal being scored and likley more than that.

The Online play series are best of three and if your opponent gets off just one megashot sucessfully it could render your attempts to win the series futile. Each different character that you choose to play with has different attributes and while only your main character is able to attempt megashots charging up your shot with any of the other characters will result in some kind of impressive attack that will likley end in a scoring chance. These other special attacks while imaginative can get pretty annoying. Especially if your opponent thinks they have found a method that works consistantly and trys to repeat it over and over.

So all in all I like the fast paced high octane challenge this game represents but haven't yet mastered the intricacies of pulling off the megashot which takes a couple of seconds to complete. Until I do I suspect I will be howling at the moon and dropping F-bombs all over whichever mario character I happen to be playing against at the time.